Forerunner 970 - Recent Threads

Option to change data field color on watch faces (e.g., RUN)

Fabse — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 13:25:25 GMT

I would like an option to change the color of the data fields on different watch faces (e.g., RUN). Bright white is too harsh, especially when I use a more subtle clock hand color.

Version 18.29 - SkiErg to Strava fault - Cadence naming

hakanwidlund — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:11:24 GMT

The new activity for SkiErg in version 18.29 seems to work fine.

– However it does not come up in Strava. Importing FIT-file manually to Strava works but no laps nor power for example.
Maybe this is some Strava issue, I dont know.

– The cadence it called "Swim cadence" in the Connect mobile app and "Oars cadence" in Connect Web. At least in the Swedish versions.

My 970's screen is off and I cannot turn it back on.

Pz4pete — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:29:18 GMT

I have tried the 30 second reset. I have plugged it into garmin express but it says that it is locked and to enter the pass code which of course I cannot do without the screen. I have tried to blindly toggle the display through the control menu. I have even taken off all other controls (except for on/off which you cannot take off) I am at a loss. What do I don? This seemed to happen back in July to but then somehow went away.

Forerunner 970 - Software Version 18.29 - 50% Rollout

Garmin-Dan — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:42:18 GMT

Software version 18.29 is now available at 50% rollout for Forerunner 970.

You may manually download this software update once available by following the path below:

Menu > Watch Settings > System > Software Update > Check For Updates

Change Log: • Enables the voice command feature with the "OK Garmin" wake word.
• Adds a suggested quick workout for running.
• Adds the XC Ski Indoor activity.
• Adds context to volume control.
• Improves the flashlight shortcut to cycle through the on, off, and strobe modes during an activity.
• Reduces false unlocks when using the touch lock feature.
• Fixes an issue that could result in pace/speed dropouts, especially during interval training.
• Fixes an issue that could cause the device to reset during a strength activity free workout.
• Fixes the onscreen lap shortcut no longer showing in HIIT workouts.
• Fixes an issue with not being able to start a suggested multisport workout.
• Fixes an issue with selecting rest days for daily suggested or Garmin Coach plan workouts.
• Fixes an issue where the training days shown on the watch might not match the days shown in the Garmin Coach plan .
• Fixes volume level not returning to correct setting after water ejection.
• Fixes an issue that could cause music volume to increase after an alarm sounds.
• Fixes an issue that could cause the device to reset when installing audio prompt software and host software simultaneously.
• Fixes other minor issues.
• Updates translations.

Underestimated Calorie Output & Lack of Adaptive BMR/TDEE Adjustment

4509219 — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 20:26:38 GMT

Hello Garmin Support / Product Team,

I am writing to report an issue with how Garmin Connect calculates total daily energy expenditure (calories burned) and to suggest a feature improvement for future updates.

My Issue: Based on long-term data—weighing myself daily on the Garmin Index S2 Smart Scale and strictly tracking my food intake—I am consistently losing weight while consuming significantly more calories than my Garmin ecosystem claims I burn. According to my real-world weight loss data, my actual daily burn (TDEE) is roughly 400 kcal higher than what Garmin Connect shows (including both Active and Resting calories).

myWayPoint

The Problem: Garmin Connect acts as a static calculator:

Resting calories (BMR) are calculated purely from static formulas based on height, weight, age, and gender.
Active calories rely solely on heart rate during activities.

servis-hodiniek.sk

When I weigh myself daily on the Index S2 scale and log my weight loss, Garmin Connect responds by lowering my BMR (because my weight decreased), which widens the calorie gap even further. The system does not recognize that losing weight while eating a higher calorie intake mathematically proves that my real daily calorie expenditure is much higher.

Questions & Suggestions:

Is there any way within current settings (such as adjusting user profile options, Activity Class, or heart rate zone methods like %HRR) to correct this ~400 kcal deficit in daily calorie calculation?
Do you plan to introduce an Adaptive TDEE / Metabolic Algorithm in Garmin Connect? It would be extremely helpful if the system could compare historical weight trends (from Index S2) with logged calorie intake (via MyFitnessPal or direct logging) to automatically calibrate a user's actual daily energy expenditure over time.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Feature Request: “Total Impact Tolerance” — Include Walking and Daily Mechanical Load

TSLau — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 02:31:33 GMT

I would like to suggest a metric that complements the existing Running Tolerance feature: something like “Total Impact Tolerance.”

The motivation comes from a fairly common experience among runners. Sometimes we do not run much on a particular day, but spend many hours walking such as shopping, sightseeing, travelling, hiking casually, or playing in a park. (Recording "walk or "hike" activities gives zero loading on Running Tolerance.) After 15–25 km of walking, our cardiovascular system may not feel particularly tired, but our legs certainly can. Feet, calves, knees, hamstrings and other tissues have still accumulated a meaningful amount of mechanical loading.

At the moment, Running Tolerance understandably focuses on running activities. However, this means that a day containing several hours of walking can appear almost like a rest day from the perspective of impact load.

I think Garmin already has much of the data required to estimate this additional load:

total daily steps;
steps recorded during running activities;
walking/running classification from accelerometer data;
elevation gain/loss;
floors climbed;
walking speed when GPS is available;
possibly heart rate and other movement data.

A very simple first approximation could be something like:

Total Impact Load = measured Running Impact Load + walking contribution + stairs/elevation contribution

For example, if:

x = steps belonging to running activities
y = total daily steps

then the additional walking contribution could initially be estimated from:

0.3 × (y - x)

where 0.3 is only an illustrative weighting factor, not necessarily the correct physiological value.

Garmin could of course make this considerably more sophisticated. Slow walking, brisk walking, hiking, uphill walking, downhill walking and stair climbing could all receive different weighting factors.

The important point is that I would not replace Running Tolerance with this metric. Running Tolerance is useful specifically because it describes running load.

Instead, Garmin could show two related concepts:

Running Tolerance
How much running-specific impact load the athlete is currently adapted to.

Total Impact Tolerance
How much overall lower-limb mechanical loading the athlete has accumulated from running, walking, hiking, stairs and everyday movement.

This could be especially useful for runners during travel, race expos, sightseeing, hiking trips, long shopping days, theme parks, etc. These activities may have little aerobic training value, but they are definitely not always “zero load” for the legs.

Even an approximate estimate would, in my opinion, be more representative than treating a 20 km walking day almost the same as sitting at home.

I would be interested to know whether other runners have noticed the same issue, and whether Garmin has considered incorporating non-running mechanical load into a separate tolerance metric. (Suggesting me to run a threshold after a LONG walking day seems non-sense.....)

Daily Suggested Workout for Bike Indoors activity

7055486 — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:58:06 GMT

I have a Forerunner 970 and Concept 2 BikeErg, and they are connected and are generating vo2 max. However, after four rides I have not started to get a DSW in the indoor bike activity. Can someone confirm whether the activity will start to generate after more rides? I am getting a running DSW without issue.

Forerunner 970 reboots when swiping hourly weather from Morning Report

洪景霖 — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 07:05:39 GMT

Hi,

I'm having an issue with my Forerunner 970 on software version 18.27.

I have the Back button shortcut set to Weather. When I'm on the Morning Report screen, I long-press the Back button and enter my passcode. Weather then opens directly to the hourly forecast.

As soon as I swipe on the hourly forecast screen, the watch reboots.

I can reproduce this consistently.

Software: 18.27
Device: Forerunner 970

Inaccurate sleep tracking

9944393 — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:40:38 GMT

In general, I love my Forerunner 970 for all my sports tracking. The sleep tracking feature is a bonus. I use an Oura ring for sleep tracking, and the "sleep score" numbers that Garmin Connect give are surprisingly close to Oura's numbers most nights. BUT... some nights I will sleep for a few hours, then wake up and not go back to sleep for an hour or two. For example:

Sleep from 9:30pm to 2:00am: 4.5 hrs
Awake from 2:00am to 4:00am:
Sleep from 4:00am to 6:30am: 2.5 hours

Total sleep: 7 hours

My Oura ring will show this whole timeline accurately, with a sleep score of 84.

Garmin Connect will show only the last segment, i.e. that I went to bed at 4am and got up at 6:30am for only 2.5 hours of sleep, with a sleep score of 38.

Additionally, from a user interface perspective, I think the colors chosen two represent the sleep timeline are really bad:
- Deep sleep: blue
- Light sleep: slightly lighter blue
- REM: pink
- Awak: slightly lighter pink??

There should be more contrast between the colors. Why make REM and Awake look so similar to Awake? Oura does a much better job at using contrasting colors to make this infographic much more easily readable.

forerunner 970 problems

2537262 — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 16:32:51 GMT

I have major issues with my fr979 which i bought a month ago.First problem it doesnt detect more than half of my naps.Second proble it ceashed 4 times already, so i needed to restart it.Third problem notifications sometimes come sometimes not.Fourth and prkbably biggest problemy during 45 minute bus ride it counted 2000 steps which i think is insane.Previois i had xiaomi watch 2 and never had any issue, so i feel like this is a downgrade altough is 5 times the lroce of xiaomi.Is this software issue, was my watch broken before it was bought or is it garbage?

forerunner 970 problems

2537262 — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 16:32:16 GMT

Fr 970 innacurate step count, crashing, not detwcting naps, sometimes not geting notifications

2537262 — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 16:25:33 GMT

Hello i bought my forerunner 970 a month ago, is my first real sport watch and so far i could not be more dissapointed, i could never imagine watch this expensive can have that many problems.First p😂blem, it already crashed 4 times during one month, so i needed to restart it.Second problem more than half naps are not detected.Third problem druring 45 mimute bus ride it counted 2k steps.How can 😂at be possible.Im coming from xiaomi watch 2 pro and i feel like this is a downgrade altough is 5 times more expensive...

Color shift not ending according to sleep schedule on weekend

Spectre9 — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 03:07:55 GMT

It has been ongoing for months now and I haven't been able to figure out what's causing this. I have set up a color shift session aligned with my sleep schedule. On weekdays, it has no issue turning off the color shift once my scheduled bedtime ends. On weekend, the color shift stays on.

Is this a glitch??

Software ver: 17.39

Tri training plan doesnt evolve anymore on phone.

LeGaspii — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 07:42:43 GMT

For a few day, training on the watch are good, and what i use to have ( it's my second M triathlon plan ). but for a few day plan doesnt evolve on app.

Sync work, and training from the watch a correctly displayed on the app, but can"t plan from it anymore.

Can anyone help ?

Have a good day

Forerunner 970 fails to record ski power but can display live values

bearthefear2 — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 10:48:46 GMT

Ski power data is shown live during activities but completely omits "record" data tracks from the native FIT file structure. No summary for power on watch, connect or in FIT-file. Recordings are made with FR970 and a HRM Pro+ strap. FTP for XC Skiing is set to 180 W. HRM Pro+ paired via ANT+.

Please add a native Roller Ski activity profile (Forerunner 970)

1128280 — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 06:12:33 GMT

Hi,

Roller skiing is how most cross country skiers train once the snow is gone. Pretty much every competitive skier, and most national teams, are out on roller skis from spring through autumn to keep their technique and ski fitness for winter. So it's a bit strange that the Forerunner 970 still doesn't have a roller ski profile, classic or skate.

People have been asking for this for years, on the Fenix watches, the 945, in Garmin Connect, and nothing ever comes of it. As it stands we have to record under XC Ski, and then every single session shows up in Strava as Nordic Ski and we change it by hand. Strava has had a proper Roller Ski activity type for ages, so it's really only Garmin's side that's missing.

The 970 is built for endurance and multisport athletes, and roller skiers are a big chunk of that crowd. Please add Roller Ski, both classic and skate, as real profiles.

Regards,

Tobbe

fenix 9 watchfaces

supersonic12 — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 05:59:28 GMT

Hey Garmin,

can you release ALL watchfaces on the fenix 9 with the next SW update on the Forerunner 970?

Thanks!

Feature Request: Functional Fitness Training & Racing with Automatic Modality Detection

3766131 — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:33:14 GMT

I would like to suggest a broader Functional Fitness activity platform for Garmin watches, covering both mixed-modality training sessions and standardized functional fitness races.

The concept would have two closely related use cases:

1. Functional Fitness Training — automatically detect the different modalities within an unstructured training session.

2. Functional Fitness Racing — provide a dedicated race activity for standardized run/station events.

Main problem

Current Garmin activity profiles do not represent mixed functional-fitness sessions particularly well.

These workouts frequently combine running, SkiErg, RowErg and functional or strength exercises within one continuous session. They are often explained on the spot by a coach and change every training session, so creating a structured workout beforehand or manually changing activity types during the workout is impractical.

There is also a data-quality problem with the current workarounds.

If I record the whole session as a Running activity and rename it afterward, the non-running portions can still affect running-related statistics and make the activity less representative of actual running performance.

If I instead record the session as Cardio, Strength or Conditioning, Garmin loses part of the useful running context, even though a significant percentage of the workout may consist of actual running intervals.

This creates a trade-off:

● Record as Running and potentially contaminate running-specific statistics with SkiErg, RowErg, sled and strength work.

● Record as Cardio or Strength and lose useful running-specific information from the actual running portions.

● Manually switch activity profiles or use Multisport, which is impractical during fast-moving group sessions.

A dedicated Functional Fitness activity with automatic modality segmentation would solve this.

Important real-world constraint

In group training there may be 15–20 athletes rotating between different SkiErgs, RowErgs and stations.

There is no realistic time to pair and disconnect a Garmin watch from each machine.

The activity therefore needs to work primarily from the Garmin watch sensors themselves rather than depending on connected gym equipment.

The ideal experience would be:

1. Press Start once.

2. Complete the entire session.

3. Press Stop once.

4. Garmin automatically reconstructs the workout.

Functional Fitness Training mode

During a Functional Fitness activity, Garmin could use accelerometer, gyroscope, heart-rate and existing movement-detection capabilities to classify the workout into a small number of modalities:

● Running

● SkiErg

● RowErg

● Functional / strength work

● Recovery / instruction / rest

The initial goal does not need to be recognition of every individual strength exercise.

Simply distinguishing these five states would already make the activity substantially more useful.

Running should have a very recognizable movement signature.

SkiErg and RowErg should also have significantly different repetitive wrist-motion signatures:

● SkiErg: repeated high-to-low pulling motion.

● RowErg: predominantly horizontal cyclic pull-and-return movement.

Garmin could classify sustained movement patterns instead of trying to identify an activity from one repetition.

When confidence is insufficient, Garmin could simply classify the segment as Functional.

Example training session 1

A typical training session could be:

● 400 m running warm-up

● Approximately 1 minute of coach explanation

● 800 m run

● 500 m SkiErg

● 800 m run

● 500 m SkiErg

● 1 minute recovery

● 8 lanes of sled push and pull

● Repeat sled push/pull block

● 800 m run

● 500 m RowErg

● 800 m run

● 500 m RowErg

● 100 m walking lunges

● 50 wall balls

● Repeat final functional block

Garmin could classify this approximately as:

Run → Recovery → Run → SkiErg → Run → SkiErg → Recovery → Functional → Run → RowErg → Run → RowErg → Functional

Example training session 2

Another session could be completely different:

● 400 m run

● 50 devil presses

● 50 box jumps

● 50 calories SkiErg

● 1 minute recovery

● 50 wall balls

● 50 hand-release push-ups

● 50 squats

● 1 minute recovery

● 500 m RowErg

● 500 m SkiErg

● Repeat final erg block

Garmin could classify this approximately as:

Run → Functional → SkiErg → Recovery → Functional → Recovery → RowErg → SkiErg

The precise strength exercise does not need to be known for the first version.

Useful output

Instead of recording:

“Cardio — 58 minutes”

Garmin could show:

Total workout: 58:20

● Running: 18:10 / 31%

● SkiErg: 8:25 / 14%

● RowErg: 5:10 / 9%

● Functional work: 21:05 / 36%

● Recovery: 5:30 / 9%

For each modality Garmin could show:

● Time

● Average heart rate

● Maximum heart rate

● Time in heart-rate zones

● Training Load / Training Effect contribution where applicable

The important difference is that Garmin would retain the context behind the cardiovascular load.

If a 60-minute session contains 20 minutes of actual running, Garmin could retain useful running data from those 20 minutes without treating the other 40 minutes as running.

Automatic training-focus classification

A useful additional feature would be for Garmin to evaluate the completed session and determine its predominant training focus:

● Conditioning-focused

● Strength-focused

● Balanced

This could be calculated from data Garmin already records or could derive, including:

● Running volume

● Erg volume

● Functional-work duration

● Heart-rate distribution

● Sustained cardiovascular intervals

● Work-to-rest ratio

● Exercise/movement characteristics

● Training load

At the end of the activity Garmin could show:

Training focus: Conditioning

and ask:

Was this correct?

The athlete could confirm or change it to Strength or Balanced.

This creates two benefits.

First, Garmin Connect could show whether an athlete’s training block is actually balanced between conditioning and strength-oriented sessions.

Second, those user confirmations provide useful labeled feedback that could improve Garmin’s classification models.

Over several weeks Garmin Connect could show something such as:

● 5 conditioning-focused sessions

● 3 balanced sessions

● 2 strength-focused sessions

alongside the normal Garmin Training Load and recovery metrics.

Functional Fitness Race mode

The same technology could support a dedicated Functional Fitness Race activity.

This is arguably easier than automatically interpreting an unstructured training session because many functional fitness races follow a predefined sequence of running and stations.

For a standardized race, Garmin already knows what should happen next.

A race profile could therefore contain a predefined structure such as:

Run → Station → Run → Station → Run → Station…

The watch would primarily need to identify the transition points.

For example, for a race consisting of repeated running segments separated by SkiErg, sled, RowErg, carries, lunges and wall-ball stations, Garmin could automatically record:

● Total race time

● Total running time

● Average running pace

● Individual run splits

● Individual station times

● Transition time

● Heart rate by run

● Heart rate by station

● Pace degradation throughout the event

This would provide significantly more useful race analysis than recording the entire event as Running or Cardio.

Event-agnostic design

The activity would not necessarily need to be tied to one event brand.

Garmin could call it something generic such as:

Functional Fitness Race

Different race templates could then define their own sequence of:

● Running

● SkiErg

● RowErg

● Sled work

● Burpees

● Carries

● Lunges

● Wall balls

● Other functional stations

This would make the feature useful for HYROX-style racing as well as other functional fitness competitions and future race formats.

It also gives Garmin a reusable platform rather than building an activity around one competition format.

Automatic race detection

Because the race structure is known in advance, Garmin could combine expected sequence with sensor data.

For example:

Expected next segment: SkiErg

●

Watch detects repeated high-to-low pulling pattern

High-confidence SkiErg start.

Then:

Ski motion ends + running gait begins

Start next Run segment.

This should be considerably easier than asking an algorithm to recognize arbitrary exercises without context.

Manual lap presses could remain available as a fallback, but ideally would not be required.

Using Garmin’s athlete population to improve detection

Garmin already has a large population of athletes recording running, strength and functional-fitness activities.

A Functional Fitness activity could optionally allow users to correct the automatically generated timeline afterward:

Garmin detected:

Run → SkiErg → Functional → Run → RowErg

If a segment was incorrect, the athlete could change it.

For example:

Functional → Wall Balls

or:

RowErg → SkiErg

Users could also confirm whether Garmin correctly classified the complete session as Strength, Conditioning or Balanced.

With appropriate user consent, these corrections could provide high-quality labeled examples for improving the movement-classification models over time.

Garmin would therefore not necessarily need perfect classification from day one.

The system could improve progressively as more athletes use it.

Longer-term analytics

Garmin Connect could show training distribution across several weeks, for example:

● 35% running

● 15% SkiErg

● 8% RowErg

● 35% functional work

● 7% recovery

Combined with training focus:

● Conditioning sessions: 45%

● Balanced sessions: 35%

● Strength sessions: 20%

This could answer questions that current activity classifications cannot easily answer:

● Am I doing enough running?

● Am I spending enough time on erg work?

● Is my training becoming too conditioning-heavy?

● Am I completing enough strength-focused sessions?

● Which modality causes the highest cardiovascular load?

● How does my running performance deteriorate after functional stations?

● Am I improving my ability to run while fatigued?

For functional-fitness racing, Garmin could additionally compare races and show whether improvements came from:

● Faster running

● Faster stations

● Better transitions

● Less running pace degradation

● Better cardiovascular recovery between stations

Important design requirements

The training activity should ideally require:

● No pairing with gym equipment

● No manual switching between activity profiles

● No predefined workout

● No lap-button presses

Automatic detection does not need to be perfect.

Garmin could use confidence thresholds and classify uncertain sections as Functional rather than forcing an incorrect exercise classification.

Users could optionally correct segments afterward and confirm the overall session focus.

Suggested development path

Version 1 — Functional Fitness Training

Automatic classification of:

RUN / SKIERG / ROWERG / FUNCTIONAL / RECOVERY

Plus:

STRENGTH-FOCUSED / CONDITIONING-FOCUSED / BALANCED session classification.

Version 2 — Improved movement recognition

Add recognizable modalities such as:

● BikeErg

● Sled push / pull

● Walking lunges

● Wall balls

● Burpees

● Farmer carry

Allow post-workout corrections and user-confirmed classifications to improve detection quality.

Version 3 — Functional Fitness Race

Introduce predefined race templates with automatic segmentation between running and functional stations.

Provide:

● Run splits

● Station splits

● Transition times

● Heart rate by modality

● Running pace degradation

● Race progression

● Race-to-race comparison

Summary

The opportunity is larger than adding a SkiErg activity or a HYROX-specific profile.

Garmin could create a Functional Fitness platform consisting of:

Training
One Start/Stop activity that automatically identifies running, SkiErg, RowErg, functional work and recovery in unpredictable mixed workouts.

Analysis
Automatically determine whether a session was primarily strength-focused, conditioning-focused or balanced, with user confirmation.

Racing
A standardized Functional Fitness Race mode where the expected sequence is already known, making accurate automatic segmentation considerably easier.

This would preserve useful running data without incorrectly treating an entire mixed workout as running, provide much better insight into actual training distribution, and create a foundation Garmin could use across multiple functional-fitness sports and race formats.

Forerunner 970 cannot control Van Rysel D500 smart trainer (works fine with Zwift and TrainerKit over Bluetooth)

garycooper — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:22:41 GMT

Hi all,

I'm trying to use my Forerunner 970 to control my smart trainer for indoor structured workouts (ERG mode), and I can't get the watch to control resistance. Reading data works, controlling does not. Here's the full picture.

Setup

Watch: Forerunner 970, up to date
Trainer: Van Rysel D500 (Decathlon), direct-drive, delivered with Zwift Cog + Click. Trainer firmware via the manufacturer app (OneLap Fit), no pending update
Bike: road bike, compact double, Zwift Cog (single 14t sprocket)
Computer/phone: Mac + iPhone (so no ANT+ on either, all apps use Bluetooth)

What works

The watch sees the trainer over ANT+. In Sensors & Accessories it shows up as three identical numeric entries ("4228"), which I take to be the power, speed and cadence broadcasts.
Once paired, the watch records power, speed and cadence correctly during an Indoor Bike activity.
Zwift on the Mac pairs to the D500 over Bluetooth (FTMS) and controls resistance perfectly, both in ERG mode and in simulation (slope) mode.
TrainerKit on the iPhone also pairs over Bluetooth (FTMS) and controls the trainer perfectly in ERG mode.

So the trainer's resistance control definitely works. It's the watch that can't drive it.

What doesn't work

In the Indoor Bike / Bike Indoor activity profile, the "Smart Trainer Options" menu (target power / resistance / slope / follow workout) never appears. It's as if the watch doesn't recognise the trainer as a controllable trainer at all.
Running a structured cycling workout with power targets: the watch shows the targets but changing them has zero effect on the trainer's resistance.

What I've tried

Paired the trainer through the different sensor types on the watch (Power, Speed/Cadence, Indoor Trainer). The result is always the same numeric "4228" entries with data only, never a controllable trainer.
Removed all existing sensor entries, closed Zwift, TrainerKit and OneLap Fit so nothing else was holding the trainer's Bluetooth connection, power-cycled the trainer, then tried pairing again from Sensors & Accessories > Add > Indoor Trainer. [RESULT: fill in — did the watch list a named Bluetooth device like "D500" / "Van Rysel", or still only numeric ANT+ IDs?]
Checked the watch and trainer firmware are current.
Confirmed with Zwift and TrainerKit that ERG control works over Bluetooth in the same session, same room, same bike, so it's not a hardware or trainer fault.

My current theory

The D500 seems to broadcast ANT+ (power / speed / cadence) but not to implement ANT+ FE-C, i.e. no trainer control channel over ANT+. All control goes through Bluetooth FTMS, which is why phone/computer apps work and the watch doesn't. The watch either only controls trainers via ANT+ FE-C, or it isn't picking up the trainer's FTMS service.

My questions

Does the Forerunner 970 support controlling a trainer over Bluetooth FTMS, or is trainer control limited to ANT+ FE-C on this watch?
Has anyone successfully paired a Bluetooth-only-control trainer (no FE-C) with a Forerunner 970 and got the Smart Trainer Options menu?
Is there any way to force the watch to use Bluetooth rather than ANT+ for a given sensor?
Has anyone else got a Van Rysel D500 working with a Garmin watch or Edge for ERG workouts?

Any pointers appreciated. Happy to run more tests and post logs if that helps.

Thanks!

Stuck on SW version 17.37

Kristof — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 06:36:43 GMT

I am currently on SW version 17.37. Once I saw that 17.38 was 100% deployed I checked Garmin Express and nothing. I thought it might be because of the error of the AOD setting, so the update was probably pulled.

But this morning I saw that 17.39 was out 100% deployed, but still my FR970 does not update through Garmin Express.

Anyone else experiencing this and/or have a fix? Thanks

Current pace shows ZERO

4639054 — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 23:32:41 GMT

Hi everyone / Garmin Support Team,

I am experiencing an issue where the pace chart drops to 0 (flatlines at the top/maximum value on Garmin Connect) right after pressing the manual lap button during a run.

Issue Summary:

Device: Garmin Forerunner 970

Activity Type: Running

Description of the Problem:

The recorded pace suddenly drops to 0 (or flatlines completely) during the middle of the run.

This occurs right after I manually trigger a lap (press the LAP button).

Other metrics like Heart Rate and Elevation continue to record properly, but the Pace data is lost/flatlined until a later point or the end of the activity.

The overall average pace and distance seem to be affected/distorted due to this drop.

This bug starts from the latest software update which happens almost a week ago.

Forerunner 970 Series Software Version 17.39 - Live

Garmin-Zac — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 14:18:13 GMT

Software version 17.39 is now available for Forerunner 970.

You may manually download this software update once available by following the path below:

Menu > Watch Settings > System > Software Update > Check For Updates

Change Log:

• Fixes a potential issue with the display that could cause unexpected behavior and inconsistent gesture response.

Elevation issues (me too).

Zhientex — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 19:13:40 GMT

My 970 shows quite a lot of elevation gain each activity. Between 100-500 meters of elevation gain in totalt on a session.

I’ve reached out to support twice (Sweden) with a reply that’s it’s normal. No, there’s a massive difference to my 530 edge, GF Fenix 6 and my friends different 9- series (955-65).

I’ve cleaned the port according to the instructions. Recalibrated etc. This has been happening since back in March.

example:

21km of roller skis:

600ish meters, reality 140ish meters: connect.garmin.com/.../24085563851

24km trail run with ~560m of gain, 970 gave me around 1000meters: connect.garmin.com/.../23810174601

As support is not working properly for me regarding this matter, please help? I’ve been in Garmin eco system for 10 years at least, but this just chips away at me.

SW Update 17.39

Bernd — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 12:43:05 GMT

Today I got an 17.39 Update.Anyone knows what's inside?

Watch display becomes very dim in sunlight

9395312 — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 16:22:40 GMT

Dear Garmin Support,

I bought my Garmin watch in July, and I am having a problem with the display. The screen becomes very dim when I am outside in sunlight, making it difficult to read.

Could you please help me troubleshoot this issue or advise me on whether the watch needs to be repaired ?

Thank you for your help.

Best regards,